Department of Molecular Pathogenesis, Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8510, Japan.
Immunogenetics. 2010 Sep;62(9):601-11. doi: 10.1007/s00251-010-0462-z. Epub 2010 Jul 17.
Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) are widely used in developing a strategy for vaccination against human immunodeficiency virus by using simian immunodeficiency virus infection as a model system. Because the genome diversity of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is well known to control the immune responsiveness to foreign antigens, MHC loci in Indian- and Chinese-origin macaques used in the experiments have been characterized, and it was revealed that the diversity of MHC in macaques was larger than the human MHC. To further characterize the diversity of Mamu-A and Mamu-B loci, we investigated a total of 73 different sequences of Mamu-A, 83 sequences of Mamu-B, and 15 sequences of Mamu-I cDNAs isolated from Burmese-origin macaques. It was found that there were one to five expressing genes in each locus. Among the Mamu-A, Mamu-B, and Mamu-I sequences, 44 (60.2%), 45 (54.2%), and 8 (53.3%), respectively, were novel, and most of the other known alleles were identical to those reported from Chinese- or Indian-origin macaques, demonstrating a genetic mixture between the geographically distinct populations of present day China and India. In addition, it was found that a Mamu haplotype contained at least two highly transcribed Mamu-A genes, because multiple Mamu-A1 cDNAs were obtained from one haplotype. These findings further revealed the diversity and complexity of MHC locus in the rhesus macaques.
恒河猴（Macaca mulatta）被广泛用于开发针对人类免疫缺陷病毒的疫苗策略，采用猴免疫缺陷病毒感染作为模型系统。由于主要组织相容性复合体（MHC）的基因组多样性被认为可以控制对外来抗原的免疫反应性，因此已经对实验中使用的印度和中国来源的恒河猴的 MHC 基因座进行了特征描述，结果表明恒河猴 MHC 的多样性大于人类 MHC。为了进一步描述 Mamu-A 和 Mamu-B 基因座的多样性，我们总共研究了从缅甸起源的恒河猴中分离出的 73 种不同的 Mamu-A、83 种 Mamu-B 和 15 种 Mamu-I cDNA 序列。结果发现每个基因座都有 1 到 5 个表达基因。在 Mamu-A、Mamu-B 和 Mamu-I 序列中，分别有 44 个（60.2%）、45 个（54.2%）和 8 个（53.3%）是新的，而其他已知等位基因大多与来自中国或印度起源的恒河猴相同，表明了当今中国和印度这两个地理位置不同的人群之间存在遗传混合。此外，还发现一个 Mamu 单倍型至少包含两个高转录的 Mamu-A 基因，因为从一个单倍型中获得了多个 Mamu-A1 cDNA。这些发现进一步揭示了恒河猴 MHC 基因座的多样性和复杂性。
